Report on the 5th European Venous Forum, Warsaw, Poland 25–27 June 2004

Abstract

E. Kalodiki*Vascular Unit, Ealing Hospital, London, UKThe fifth meeting of the European Venous Forum(EVF) was held recently in Warsaw from the 25th tothe 27th of June with great success. The meeting wasattended by 230 delegates (compared to 100 of the 4thmeeting) and the forum has now 208 members(compared to 164 in 2003).The EVF was founded in 2000 in parallel with theAmerican Venous Forum with the aim of presentingselected papers on venous disease of high scientificquality. The peculiarity of these fora is that thespeakers are given 10 min to present their workwhich is then followed by 10 min discussion.The president of each forum with his team,undertake to organize the congress locally. However,the registration, selection of papers and printing of thescientific program is done centrally from the organiz-ing committee of the EVF whose president is ProfessorA.N. Nicolaides.The first congress was held in Lyon, France havingas president and organizer M. Perrin. The second tookplace in Rome, by C. Allegra, the third in Berlin by U.Schultz-Ehrenburg and the fourth in Lisbon by J.Fernandes e Fernandes. The president and organizerof the present one was A. Jawien. The sixth will takeplace in 2005 in Crete with president and organizer A.Katsamouris.One of the advantages of being a member of theEVF (annual membership 55 Euro i.e. £37) is that theregistration fee is very low for members (this year itwas 300 Euro i.e. £220 compared to 460 Euro i.e. £320for non-members).The scientific programme commenced on Fridayafternoon with two didactic sessions organizedtogether with the Polish Phlebological Society.In the first session, on venous thromboembolismchaired by W. Tomkowski and A. Jawien, J.A. Caprinipresented a paper on ‘risk assessment models’. W.Tomkowski talked on ‘focus on prophylaxis of VTE’,while the ‘management and treatment at the begin-ning of the XXI century’ ‘for DVTand PE’ was coveredby A. Gallus and B. Davidson, respectively.In the second session on chronic venous insuffi-ciency (CVI), chaired by A. Nicolaides and A. Jawien,the latter presented a paper on the ‘epidemiology andgenetic factors influencing CVI’, W. Olszewski out-lined ‘The role of the lymphatic system in CVI’, and A.Nicolaides talked on ‘from symptoms to leg edema:efficacy of daflon 500 mg in CVI’. The guest of honourthis year was P. Gloviczki from USAwho reported onthe American Venous Forum guidelines on themanagement of chronic venous disease.Thirty-one abstracts were selected for presentationand they appear below. The prizes were given tonumbers 20, 17 and 23. The prize apart from thecertificate (and a bottle of Vodka to celebrate it!)provides the authors with a recommendation letter forthe scientific journal of their choice.